Travel
Kimia Afshar Mehrabi
Posted 8 months ago
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Ontario border struggles all week as outages back up trucks and airport kiosks

Travel
Kimia Afshar Mehrabi
Posted 8 months ago
Report Inaccuracy
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Ontario's border has been a mess all week, to say the least, as drivers and travellers continue to face long delays caused by repeated system outages at Canadian customs and border inspections kiosks. 

On Thursday, commercial truck drivers entering Canada at the Blue Water Bridge just outside of Sarnia reported waits of several hours due to a system outage that was confirmed by the Michigan Department of Transportation. Although the outage has since been resolved, videos of the resulting gridlock quickly spread on social media. 

In a statement, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) confirmed that while the outage has since been resolved, "commercial drivers continue to experience delays" as normal processing resumes and the agency works to clear a backlog of requests that were received during the outage. 

"Primary inspection lanes are staged with officers to process traffic and shipments. We are actively collaborating with our partners to ensure traffic management. Systems are being monitored for stability while traffic and shipping return to normal," the agency said. 

This latest incident follows a similar disruption that occurred earlier in the week on Tuesday, when a system outage caused significant delays in commercial processing at ports of entry across southern Ontario. 

In that incident, commercial trucks struggled to cross the Canada-U.S. border until the CBSA partially resolved the issue at 1:45 p.m. 

In the face of repeated issues, representatives with the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) have criticized the government agency. 

"The outages continue to increase significantly in frequency and duration and are highly disruptive to carriers and their customers during this sluggish freight economy, which cannot afford any delay costs," the alliance said in a statement released on Tuesday. 

"Although the outages over the last few weeks have been very significant, this matter has been an ongoing issue for many years," CTA's CEO and President, Stephen Laskowski added. 

"Trade between the United States and Canada is regularly brought to a halt because Ottawa has failed to address outdated systems used to process shipments. Today, the entire northern border has come to a standstill because of that neglect." 

Those traveling via plane weren't spared either this week, as two outages affected CBSA's self-serve kiosks, which passengers use to make their customs declarations, at multiple Canadian airports. On Thursday, the agency said the outage began at 10:20 a.m. and was resolved just before 2 p.m. 

"Travellers may continue to experience delays in the short term as we resume normal processing operations. We thank you for your patience and apologize for any inconvenience experienced," the CBSA wrote on its social media pages. 

Thousands of passengers were also affected during an outage on Sunday, which occurred due to a technical issue during routine systems maintenance. 

Lead photo by

WoodysPhotos/Shutterstock.com
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